History CowboyBebopAtHisComputer / TabletopGames

* While in Spain, role-playing games never were targeted by MoralGuardians as in US, things changed in TheNineties [[https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimen_del_rol when a man was killed while waiting the bus by two students]] (warning: link in Spanish). Once the Police registered the houses of the murderers, agents found among other things a lot of RPG manuals and it was said than both played those games. That was all what was needed by ignorant, dishonest, or simply sensationalism, journalists to consider that kind of games as little less than evil incarnated even if the murderers almost never played role-playing games and in fact hated them[[note]]The "role-playing game" said to be played by one of them was just a mess invented by him with nothing of a real RPG[[/note]], up to movies where games where treated as such. The effects of that sensationalism last to this day, even if the sentence left clear role-playing games had nothing to see with the crime and the Ministry of Education and Science released articles about the many benefits of RPGs.

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* While in Spain, role-playing games never were targeted by MoralGuardians as in US, things changed in TheNineties [[https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimen_del_rol when a man was killed while waiting the bus by two students]] (warning: link in Spanish). Once the Police registered the houses of the murderers, agents found among other things a lot of RPG manuals and it was said than both played those games. That was all what was needed by ignorant, dishonest, or simply sensationalism, sensationalistic journalists to consider that kind of games as little less than evil incarnated even if the murderers almost never played role-playing games and in fact hated them[[note]]The "role-playing game" said to be played by one of them the two was just a mess invented by him with nothing of a real RPG[[/note]], up to movies where games where treated as such. The effects of that sensationalism last to this day, with some people considering role-playing games as dangerous, even if the sentence left clear role-playing games they had nothing to see with the crime and the Ministry of Education and Science released articles about the many benefits of RPGs.that form of entertainment.

* While in Spain, role-playing games never were targeted by MoralGuardians as in US, things changed in TheNineties [[https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimen_del_rol when a man was killed while waiting the bus by two students]] (warning: link in Spanish). Once the Police registered the houses of the murderers, agents found among other things a lot of RPG manuals and it was said than both played those games. That was all what was needed by ignorant, dishonest, or simply sensationalism, journalists to consider that kind of games as little less than evil incarnated even if the murderers almost never played role-playing games and in fact hated them[[note]]The "role-playing game" said to be played by one of them was just a mess invented by him with nothing of a real RPG[[/note]], up to movies where games where treated as such. The effects of that sensationalism last to this day, even if the sentence left clear role-playing games had nothing to see with the crime and the Ministry of Education and Science released articles about the many benefits of RPGs.

* One French magazine had an article about ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. In it, they showed a picture with the caption of "Ultra-Marines [sic] disembarking from a Rhino." However, the Ultra-Marines [sic] are bright yellow (which would make them Imperial Fists) and the "Rhino" is a Land Raider. In perhaps the worst screw-up in the article, the Orks are referred to as "Tau". For the uninitiated- Orks are huge, green, and muscular, preferring close combat. The Tau are slender, bluish-grey, and hate close combat. Bonus points because the Tau and Orks are, in-universe, mortal enemies (at least from the Tau Perspective. Orks don't really give a damn who's on the receiving end of a choppa).

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* One French magazine had an article about ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. In it, they showed a picture with the caption of "Ultra-Marines [sic] disembarking from a Rhino." However, the Ultra-Marines [sic] are bright yellow (which would make them Imperial Fists) and the "Rhino" is a Land Raider. In perhaps the worst screw-up in the article, the Orks are referred to as "Tau". For the uninitiated- Orks are huge, green, and muscular, preferring close combat. The Tau are slender, bluish-grey, and hate close combat. Bonus points because the Tau and Orks are, in-universe, mortal enemies (at least from the Tau Perspective. Orks don't really give a damn who's on the receiving end of a choppa). This is a particularly strange example as whoever had captioned the picture clearly knew ''something'' about 40k (since Ultramarines, Rhinos and Tau are all things that exist), it's just that the things they knew about were not represented in that particular picture at all.

** It's always funny when a gaming publication gets something wrong about gaming, [[http://www.push-start.co.uk/all/articles/news/latest-gaming-news/announcements/sega-and-creative-assembly-nab-the-warhammer-license/ as in this article]] which used an image from ''40k'' in an article about [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} the other]] ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' (namely that [[VideoGame/TotalWar Creative Assembly]] has gotten the license to make a ''WFB'' RTS).

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** It's always funny when a gaming publication gets something wrong about gaming, [[http://www.push-start.co.uk/all/articles/news/latest-gaming-news/announcements/sega-and-creative-assembly-nab-the-warhammer-license/ as in this article]] which used an image from ''40k'' in an article about [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} the other]] ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' (namely that [[VideoGame/TotalWar Creative Assembly]] Creator/CreativeAssembly has gotten the license to make a ''WFB'' RTS).''[[VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer WFB]]'' [[VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer RTS]]).

* An epic fail shared by pretty much all the major UK tabloids (at a minimum, the Daily Mail, The Sun, [[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/13/computer-mad-mum-starved-kids-115875-22557397/ Mirror]], [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7997601/Woman-obsessed-with-computer-game-left-children-to-eat-cold-baked-beans.html Telegraph]] and [[http://www.metro.co.uk/news/840709-mother-obsessed-with-computer-game-ignored-children-and-let-two-dogs-starve-to-death Metro]] all ran the story) about a mother of three neglecting her children and pets because she was obsessed with playing the board game Small World online. Leaving aside the obvious sensationalism (like kids eating cold baked beans with their fingers because the house apparently had tin openers but no spoons, and a thirteen-year-old doing nothing about the situation even when the dogs starved to death and were left to rot on the floor) the biggest issue is that ''there is no online version of Small World in existence''. The closest thing is the iPad version, which you can only play locally, like the real board game. The articles contain accurate images and descriptions of the board game (except for a random shot of WarhammerOnline) and links to the parent company, but they have ''literally nothing'' to do with the case. It looks likely that the game involved is actually smallworlds.com, a completely unrelated SecondLife type of game, a journalist messed up the Google search somewhere, and the mistake propagated from there.

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* An epic fail shared by pretty much all the major UK tabloids (at a minimum, the Daily Mail, The Sun, [[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/13/computer-mad-mum-starved-kids-115875-22557397/ Mirror]], [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7997601/Woman-obsessed-with-computer-game-left-children-to-eat-cold-baked-beans.html Telegraph]] and [[http://www.metro.co.uk/news/840709-mother-obsessed-with-computer-game-ignored-children-and-let-two-dogs-starve-to-death Metro]] all ran the story) about a mother of three neglecting her children and pets because she was obsessed with playing the board game Small World online. Leaving aside the obvious sensationalism (like kids eating cold baked beans with their fingers because the house apparently had tin openers but no spoons, and a thirteen-year-old doing nothing about the situation even when the dogs starved to death and were left to rot on the floor) the biggest issue is that ''there is was no online version of Small World in existence''. The closest thing is existence'' at the iPad version, which you can time[[note]]The only digital version available back then was an iOS app that only supported local multiplayer. A second version with online play locally, like the real board game.has since been released for multiple platforms[[/note]]. The articles contain accurate images and descriptions of the board game (except for a random shot of WarhammerOnline) and links to the parent company, but they have ''literally nothing'' to do with the case. It looks likely that the game involved is actually smallworlds.com, a completely unrelated SecondLife type of game, a journalist messed up the Google search somewhere, and the mistake propagated from there.

* Creator/TerryPratchett once revealed that he had been contacted by many would-be {{Franchise/Discworld}} game designers, many of whom clearly had very little knowledge of the series (one proposed game was "based" on "the war between witches and wizards"). Needless to say, the inly game to gain PTerry's approval was from Trevor Truran, a Discworld fan who is also a professional game designer.

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* Creator/TerryPratchett once revealed that he had been contacted by many would-be {{Franchise/Discworld}} game designers, many of whom clearly had very little knowledge of the series (one proposed game was "based" on "the war between witches and wizards"). Needless to say, the inly only game to gain PTerry's [=PTerry's=] approval was from Trevor Truran, a Discworld fan who is also a professional game designer.

* Creator/TerryPratchett once revealed that he had been contacted by many would-be {{Franchise/Discworld}} game designers, many of whom clearly had very little knowledge of the series (one proposed game was "based" on "the war between witches and wizards"). Needless to say, the inly game to gain PTerry's approval was from Trevor Truran, a Discworld fan who is also a professional game designer.

*** And on French comics, for that matter. Not that "gothic" and erotic work don't exist, far from it, but the work that really hit the mainstream and sell well are often books that gravit towards a much more humorous and juvenile tone than in the US

* The Guardian published a piece about a [[http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/feb/16/game-of-thrones-monopoly-surely-the-definitive-version-of-the-board-game Game of Thrones version of Monopoly]], declaring that the success of this game would be "the only way other Series/GameOfThrones board games will get the go-ahead". Ten seconds on Google would have told the writer that there already exists a very successful strategy game by Fantasy Flight Games based on the franchise.

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